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The opening Winkworth Race Day of the 10th Charles Stanley Direct Cowes Classics Week witnessed a huge mixture of fortunes in Monday's light airs which saw winds constantly shifting, presenting a mixture of fortunes across the competing fleets.

Andrew Pearson's wooden 10 metre yacht Bojar, which is 80 years old this year, was today's winner of 'Classic Yacht Red 1' class which sailed a mid-Solent course, starting out, as did the other three Classic Cruiser classes, on the east going tide from the Royal London Yacht Club's shore line off the Parade at Cowes.

Wins in the other cruiser classes went to SCOD Adelie in the 'Green' class, Nordic Folkboat The Otter, in the Folkboat class, Contessa 26 Jiminy Cricket in the 'Blue' class and Sunmaid V in the 'Red II' class.

The day did not turn out quite as planned for the much anticipated celebration of the Flying Fifteens' 70th anniversary race. The Uffa Fox designed keelboat, which first appeared in 1947, was the first off the start line this morning, but as Race Officer Derek Hodd explained "The wind that was forecast didn't arrive until later in the day moving between easterly and northerly, finally settling back into the east." Although the wind did kick in eventually it was too late for the 28-strong Flying Fifteen class, which suffered from the morning's light winds - even a delay caused by a general recall of their first start did nothing to improve their chances of a better breeze.

Decreasing wind left the fleet struggling on the long downwind leg against the tide. One by one decisions were made to retire, with the last to give in being Campbell Alexander's Durban Flyer. The day still needed to be celebrated so the anniversary trophy, the Queen Victoria Jubilee Cup, was awarded, with unanimous approval, to Durban Flyer's South African crew. Like all the other classes the Flying Fifteens have four more days of racing to look forward to so a chance to put in some results.

Pattaya, Thailand - Team USA beat Team China in a dramatic, hard-won, winner-takes-all 'Sail Off' in the team racing portion of the Optimist World Championship 2017, retaining its hold on the IODA Challenge Cup team racing trophy for the second year in a row..

In high winds of 13-18 knots, huge swell, and choppy seas, the Americans set off in the morning alongside 15 other teams, each determined to do their best on the final day of the team racing championship.

The day opened with a series of flights which ensured each of the top 16 teams had a chance to race twice before being eliminated if they lost twice. Team USA skillfully bested Ireland, Germany, Thailand, and Singapore in turn to earn the first assured place in the final Sail Off.

In contrast, the Chinese had to duel with six teams to secure their spot in the finals. Ironically, in their second race, they were beaten by the Malaysians, but, in the showdown for the second seat in the Sail Off, they found themselves up against Team Malaysia again, this time besting them and sending them to shore with bronze.

The final Sail Off was a best-of-three race series, the first race won by Team USA, the second by Team China. This made the third race a 'must win'. As the race committee, described it, the deciding race was a "great race", the winner unclear until the very end.

On Tuesday, the individual world championships series continues with fleets split into four based on their rankings after six earlier this week. The Americans can expect to do battle with the Chinese again in the coming days. Four members of Team USA and three of Team China are in the gold fleet.

470 World Championship Titles To Poland And Australia
Thessaloniki, Greece: The conclusion to the preceding five days of racing came down to the medal races at the 2017 470 World Championship in Thessaloniki, Greece.

In the 470 Women, any one of the top four going into the medal race had a punt at a medal, with the series leaders Agnieszka Skrzypulec/Irmina Mrozek Gliszczynska already guaranteed gold or silver. The three boats behind would tussle for silver and bronze.

In the 470 Men the podium chancers were a bit more clear cut. Series leaders, Anton Dahlberg/Fredrik Bergstrom were guaranteed either gold or silver in a who dares wins first to the finish face off with Australians Mathew Belcher/Will Ryan. The battle for bronze was between David Bargehr/Lukas Mahr and Deniz Cinar/Ates Cinar.

The 470 Women got off first at 1415 hours for their short, sharp twenty-five minute windward / leeward race, followed by the 470 Men.

470 Women

Gold to Poland in a stunning delivery of performance from Agnieszka Skrzypulec/Irmina Mrozek Gliszczynska. The pair finished the medal race in 7th place to take their first ever World Championship medal with a 6 point margin.

For Polish sailing, their gold medal is a huge triumph for Olympic dinghy sailing, and a feat last achieved by the renowned Mateusz Kusznierewicz in 2000 at the Finn Worlds, four years after he won the nation's first Olympic Gold.

An epic medal fight in the 470 Men meant teams had no choice but to hunt each other out.
Australia's Mat Belcher/Will Ryan crossed the finish in first place and wrapped up gold, the 7th World Championship victory for Belcher, and fourth with Ryan. The team is invincible.

Contender World Championship 2017 - Day One
107 Contender dinghies were ready for racing on day 1 for the Contender World Championship in Sonderborg in the southern part of Denmark.

The wind was westerly 11-16 knots quit shifty. First race of the regatta started after one general recall. Race One was won by UK's, Simon Mussell, with Mark Bulka second and Jason Beebe third both from Australia. The local Jesper Nielsen from Aabenraa/Dyvig finished fourth in the 1. Race.

Second race and the wind was similar. Mark Bulka rounded the 1st mark and hold that position all the way round and finished with decisive lead. Race winner in race 1, Mussell, capsized just after the windward mark and finished the race 8th. Jason Beebe finished second with Voker Niediek from Germany picking up third. The local sailor, Jesper Nielsen, was 8th at the 1st mark and finished to overtake four boats and finished 4th.

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Graham Bailey is Dragon Edinburgh Cup Champion
Cowes, UK: The Dragon Edinburgh Cup 2017 sponsored by Oliver Morgan Architects and Stoneham Construction Ltd came to a stylish conclusion in Cowes with a deciding final race.

Going into the day, four boats were in contention to claim the prestigious Edinburgh Cup, which was first raced for off Cowes from the Island Sailing Club sixty-nine years ago. This year 38 teams from six nations challenged for the right to engrave their names onto the trophy and with a single race to go Graham Bailey sailing GBR782 Aimee with Julia Bailey, Will Heritage and Will Bedford, Poul Richard Hoj-Jensen sailing GBR813 Danish Blue with Hamish McKay and Paul Blowers, Andy Beadsworth sailing TUR1212 Provezza Dragon with Simon Fry and Ali Tezdiker, and Martin Payne sailing GBR585 Full Speed with Chris Britten and Gillian Hamilton were separated by only four points and all able to win.

Yet again the wind was incredibly shifty and ranging anywhere between 6 and 16 knots.

To win Beadsworth now needed to get three boats between himself and Bailey. Beadsworth tried every trick in the book but Bailey is not renowned as one of the calmest men in yachting for nothing, he kept his head and simply never gave Beadsworth the chance to get away.
In 2018 the Dragon Edinburgh Cup will be held in Torquay from 30 June to 7 July. -- Fiona Brown

Defender Proves Age is Just a Number With Queen's Cup Victory
Newport, Rhode Island, USA: Three and a half decades ago, the 12 Metre Defender left Newport under less than ideal circumstances, having failed in its campaign to represent the New York Yacht Club in the 1983 America's Cup.

This summer, her return to competition has been an unqualified success. Earlier today, Dennis William's skippered the restored 12 Metre to a win in the Queen's Cup, knocking off a fleet of a dozen newer and more nimble raceboats to claim one of the New York Yacht Club's most prestigious trophies.

The Queen's Cup, which was first raced in 1953, is an anachronism. It's just one race, rather than a series, and much longer than the traditionally hour-long windward-leeward races that are ubiquitous in modern big-boat racing. The 2017 Queen's Cup course covered 6 legs and 16.2 miles, as the crow flies. The fastest boat took two hours and 11 minutes to complete the course; the slowest nearly three hours. There's also the unique starting procedure, which allows each boat to pick it's starting time within a two-minute window.

The 12 Metre class is seeing a resurgence of interest in advance of the class's 2019 World Championship in Newport. -- Stuart Streuli

Sign up to Bart's Bash 2017...the biggest sailing event in the world
The campaign launches today!

The Andrew Simpson Foundation, the UK-based Sailing Charity with a global reach, sits at the epicentre of the unique annual sailing event, the biggest sailing event in the world, Bart's Bash, which this year takes place over the weekend of 16-17 September.

This is the 4th Bart's Bash and the event management team is delighted to announce the launch of the 2017 SIGN-UP campaign marked by a Call to Action video created by their supporter Sunset+Vine.

The Bart's Bash team is already busy fine-tuning plans to promote Bart's Bash at Lendy Cowes Week where on Monday 31st July, the Official Charity Day, they will be running the 'Cowes Bash', a race for all competitors. At registration they can get decals and buy their 'Simpson Sunnies' and everyone is encouraged to grab a pair and wear them on Charity Day! All the race results from the first race of the day will be pooled in the same way as for Bart's Bash to identify an overall winner for the day.

Following on after racing, everyone is invited to join in at The Big Bash, a huge party in Cowes Yacht Haven starting at 7pm and designed entirely around putting the FUN into FUNdraising with Olympic medallist and DJ Mark Covell on stage as Master of Ceremonies!

The Bart's Bash website bartsbash.com includes the video, the whys and the wherefores behind this extraordinary event, how and where to sign up, useful resources about how to fundraise and also information about how your donations and the monies raised is spent.

Mischa Heemskerk and Stephan Dekker F18 World Champs
He did it! After several attempts the last few years Mischa Heemskerk (NED) together with his crew Stephan Dekker (NED) win the Formula 18 Worlds. With an impressive serie of results since they entered the Gold Fleet last Thursday they kept Demesmaeker/Tas (BEL) behind.

Third on the podium this year are Van Dijk/De Waard with equal points as number two, just keeping both teams Booth father/son (ESP) and Paschalidis/Trigkonis (GRE) by 2 points from the podium. It's also the FIRST time in history a Belgium team has been on the podium of a F18 Worlds.

Today races were postponed till 12:00. Then a gentle 6-8 knots of breeze filled in and races were started, nervous sailors forcing Race Committee to use Black Flag. After a second general recall 15 boats got a Black Flag Disqualification (BFD), and the third attempt was the right one, all boats being clear, and the fight for the trophy truly beginning. Heemskerk/Dekker had a good start and were 1st at the top mark, followed by Sach/Sach (GER) and Northrop/Barker (GBR). After the first round at the gate Heemskerk/Dekker were leading followed by Van Dijk/De Waard (NED), Sach/Sach and Northrop/Barker. With a huge gap Heemskerk/Dekker finished first.

The second race of the day was held in superb conditions with average 10 knots of breeze. Again Master and Commander Heemskerk/Dekker had a good start and, not surprising anymore, another win.

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